Professional Advice Needed

[Corgi]

Friends,

Today I was browsing perfect-clones.com when I came accrossa beautiful Daytona. The reason it was beautiful, and not just a Daytona, was the clever dial arrangement. You see, the seconds were running at 9:00 instead of 6:00. I checked ebay, and indeed, such a thing did exist in the late 90s. There were several dealers selling similar models, but one question remains: does it have the new 7750 with 28,800 BPH?

Also, if anyone would like to comment on the overall appearance, believability, and suspected quality of this rep, please do so. I am getting curious - and my love for Daytonae may have found a match. Could this timepiece really condense the beauty and magnificent presence of the controversial timepiece with the reliability of a robust and correctly-fitted movement?

What kind of movement is pictured below?

[section8]

I believe that model Daytona rep uses the standard Asian 7750 - It is the only daytona I would consider buying as I wouldn't want to deal with the highly modified 7750 in the seconds at 6 model.

[crystalcranium]

This is a standard modified 7750 geared up to perform like a 7753. This arrangement employs several gears to move the chrono minute hand from 12 oclock to 3 oclock. This usually does not result in additional reliability issues as the chrono minute only operates in chrono mode and then only once a minute. Moving the running second dial from 9 to 6 is a much bigger deal and the gearing needed to modify either the Asian or Swiss 7750 to operate and look like the latest generation of Daytonas has created almost insurmountable problems well documented on this site. A large number of these movements arrive DOA. Oiling the Asian 7750 usually creates too much load for the heavily modified version to handle so many of them are assembled dry.

The only issue moving the minute totalizer creates is a more deeply set date wheel due to the top plate gearing.

[ubiquitous]

Unfortunately, the visual/aesthetic flaw with the sec at 9:00 Daytonas (i.e. the 16520, 16523, 16528, 16518, etc, etc) is the subdial spacing. These are replicas of the Daytonas using the 4030 movement, aka the El Primero 400. The subdial spacing should look like these:

There are some other 'tells' as well, like the position of the pushers relative to the crown, etc. But all in all, still a nice looking watch. If you like Daytonas, but don't want to spend $3k+ on a franken, the seconds at 9:00 7750/3 model is probably your best option for a modern... Even with the subdial spacing off. It will be much more reliable than the 116520 (and variations) model....

[section8]

Nice new sig pic Ubi

[Corgi]

Thanks for the replies. If I was the manufacturer, I would have used the new 7750 movement... the seconds hand will not sweep as smoothly, at least I assume, with the old version. Indeed, after looking closely at the subdial spacing, my hunt for a reliable Daytona continues...

I guess I'll have to go with the two-tone submarine on blue face for my bi-annual bling-bling buy.

[jonthebhoy]

I have this watch and it came from Josh. I won it in a board raffle on the old RWG.

It performs well and of course it carries all the flaws that the guys above have mentioned but, save for a little blemish on one of the centre links, it looks as good on the wrist as in that photograph.

I would still go with the old 7750 movement over the newer and modified movements as a higher than acceptible percentage of these carry problems.

JTB